Children with Disabilities

A disability includes a physical impairment such as mobility, hearing, visual, and language difficulties, and developmental delays which affect a person’s behaviour, emotional expression, and learning abilities. It includes mild to severe disabilities, from cerebral palsy, paralysis and amputation, to blindness, deafness, autism, and dyslexia. Children may be born with an impairment, or develop one as a result of disease, abuse, or an injury, e.g. many children are the victims of shootings, bombings, and explosions in conflict affected areas. 

Displaying 1 - 10 of 490

UNICEF,

The Disability Inclusive Child Protection Systems Strengthening Resource (DI-CPSS) is a practical guide for improving disability inclusion in child protection systems within the framework of the UNICEF child protection systems strengthening (CPSS) approach.

Noriko Hatanaka and Ian Forber-Pratt ,

This article examines challenges in Sri Lanka’s child protection system for children with disabilities, drawing on insights from 11 professionals to identify critical gaps in policy, services, and societal attitudes. It proposes eight practical, cost-conscious strategies to strengthen disability-inclusive protection aligned with the UN CRPD, offering lessons for global child protection reform.

Brenda Schuster with support from Kate Greenaway, Leia Isanhart, Marie Blum and Teresiah Kamau,

This case study showcases Kar Geno’s transition from institutional care to community-based support for children with disabilities in Siaya County, Kenya, guided by CTWWC and Catholic Relief Services. Through family reintegration, disability-inclusive services, and strong collaboration with government and civil society, Kar Geno has become a model for sustainable care reform, reintegrating nearly all resident children while continuing to provide accessible medical and psychosocial support through a community drop-in center.

Burak Küsmez and Abdullah Selim Doğan ,

Child protection systems have traditionally emphasized remedial services over prevention, often relying on uniform care models that fail to account for children’s diverse needs. This study examines the child protection systems of countries representing various welfare models and comparatively evaluates the practices for disabled children in need of protection in these systems.

Sarah Elizabeth Neville, Joanna Wakia, John Hembling, Beth Bradford, Martin Kiandiko, et. al,

This study examined how disability status affects the well-being of children in Kenya who were reunified with families after living in residential care. It found that children with disabilities reported lower well-being and life satisfaction compared to their peers without disabilities, highlighting the need for targeted support during reunification.

Heba Hagrass,

In this report, the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, Heba Hagrass, highlights barriers faced by children with disabilities and their caregivers to the enjoyment of their human rights, in the absence of adequate support services.

UNICEF and Changing the Way We Care,

This video explores efforts to enable children with disabilities in Rwanda to grow up in safe and caring families using an integrated approach which saw collaboration between the child protection, health, education and social protection sectors.

UNICEF,

This summary draws on the work of the UNICEF Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (ECARO) with and for children with disabilities to develop pathways for their full inclusion in their communities.

UNICEF and Coram International,

This report presents the main findings, conclusions, and recommendations of a formative and summative evaluation of the childcare and deinstitutionalisation reforms in North Macedonia for the period of 2009 2022. The evaluation was commissioned by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Europe and Central Asia Region Office (ECARO), as part of its multi-country evaluation of the impact of national child care reforms across eight1 countries in Europe and Central Asia and was conducted by Coram International.

UNICEF and Changing the Way We Care,

Over the past decade, Rwanda has reformed its care system to prioritize family-based care, with recent efforts focusing on supporting children with disabilities through a multi-sector, community-based approach. This short case study explains why this integrated model is important to prevent family separation, outlines the key components of this approach, and provides some lessons learnt from the pilot.